Thriving communities,

affordable homes
Who we are and what we do

DELIVERING
HOMES
CREATING
COMMUNITIES
The Homes and Communities Agency
(HCA) is the single housing and
regeneration delivery agency for
England, helping to create great
places and affordable homes.
We are a national agency that
works locally. We act as a bridge
between national targets and local
ambitions, harnessing the resources
of the public, private and voluntary
sectors, providing a single point
of contact for all those involved
in helping communities to thrive.
Great design, great places 1
What we do 2
How we do it – Investment and Land 4
How we do it – Affordable Housing 5
How we do it – The Single Conversation 6
How we do it – Raising the Game 7
Getting in touch 9

Front cover image: Burton’s Farm Park, North Solihull Regeneration Project
Young residents keeping active, using public open space in front of new homes
 The HCA opened for business on
1 December 2008, as the single,
integrated housing and regeneration
agency in the country. From day one,
we started making an impact on the
way homes and communities are
delivered across the English regions.
DEC
• HCA starts operating four months
ahead of schedule
• HCA spells out its offer of taking flexible
approach to delivery partners
• Inherited programmes transferred
without loss of momentum
JUN
• Hanham Hall, near Bristol, England’s first
Code Level 6* large-scale development,
gets planning permission
• Housing Finance Advisory Group is appointed
• Public Land Initiative set up
• 64 expressions of interest received
for Private Rental Sector Initiative
• Government pledges additional
£1.5bn for affordable housing
One year on, we’ve worked with
central and local government, housing
associations, housebuilders, communities
and partners in the public, private and
voluntary sectors to make a real
difference to people’s lives in villages,
towns and cities around the country.
JAN
• Barking Riverside submits three major
planning applications to transform
a 150 ha brownfield site in the
Thames Gateway
• Mortgage Rescue scheme launches
nationwide
JUL
• HCA and London Mayor invest £32m
into regeneration of Greenwich
• £1.1bn invested into Yorkshire
and Humber through NAHP
• £12m for first Low Carbon Infrastructure
schemes
• £1.7bn awarded to 10 local authorities
through Private Finance Initiative
• £35m allocated to the Housing Market
Renewal Pathfinders
FEB
• £32m of Gypsy and Traveller Site Grant
funding available and bidding guidance
published
• Final stage of Liverpool’s Lime Street
Gateway project gets underway with
appointment of contractor
• Corby train station opens, providing
a direct rail link to London
AUG
• Go-ahead for redevelopment
of former Bickershaw colliery site
• Launch of HCA’s Community
Engagement policy
• £8.8m for second round Low Carbon
Infrastructure schemes
• Redevelopment of former Graylingwell
hospital site in Chichester gets planning
permission
 MAR
• Launch of L&Q’s Up2You intermediate
rent housing scheme in London
• Construction of first 116 homes starts
at Woodberry Down estate, one
of London’s largest regeneration sites
• HomeBuy Direct attracts first buyers,
and new HomeBuy Agents are
appointed for 2009/2011
SEP
• Frickley former colliery site officially
opens to the public as a country park
• 750 homes unlocked through Kickstart’s
first £10m
• Launch of Agency’s first Corporate Plan
2009/2011
• £180m for Round 2 of Local Authority
New Build
APR
• Planning approval granted for the £1bn
regeneration of Kidbrooke’s Ferrier Estate
• Launch of Rural Affordable Housing
Project, which aims to help local
authorities increase delivery of homes
in rural areas
• HCA receives additional £635m Housing
Funding Package in April Budget
OCT
• Multi-million pound agreement signed
to deliver first affordable homes at King’s
Cross, London
• £51m of Kickstart funding released
to unlock 2,000 homes
• Rowner Renewal project gets planning
approval from Gosport Borough Council
for 219 new homes in Phase One of
the development
MAY
• Details unveiled of £400m funding for
Kickstart and £100m for Local Authority
New Build, along with £84m Social
Housing Energy Saving Programme
• Milton Keynes gets £15m funding to
boost growth in the city
• Appointment of the Housing our Ageing
Population Panel for Innovation (HAPPI)
NOV
• Publication of Annual Report and
Financial Statements 2008/09 shows
27,666 new affordable homes completed
in first four months of operation
• Single Conversation makes great progress,
with 121 underway across the country
• £5m from Department of Energy and
Climate Change for renewable construction
of affordable homes meeting Code Level 4*
• HCA publishes report on social mobility

Allerton Bywater, West Yorkshire
The community here will benefit from
high-quality, well designed homes
in this long-term regeneration project
Our work is about building new, and rejuvenating
existing communities, by forging partnerships
with all of the key players in housing and
regeneration in your area.
Above all, it’s about people, places and
a sense of local belonging. We create
opportunity for people to live, work and
enjoy life in places that they desire and
that they can afford.
Great design, great places
We champion and enforce rigorous design,
quality and energy-efficiency standards
throughout our work. This ensures the
creation of high-quality homes in safe
and attractive surroundings, well served
by infrastructure, amenities and open
green space.
Homes and Communities Agency
Five Links Estate, Basildon
Estate regeneration has ensured affordable,
desirable homes for many residents
in the area
We particularly promote the issues of
diversity and community engagement,
placing local people firmly and fairly at
the heart of the design and delivery of
housing and regeneration in their areas.
So, whether we’re providing funding for
affordable homes, bringing brownfield
land back into use or working with partners
to develop their skills in community
engagement, our aim is to bring together
the right people at the right time to create
truly great places.
Delivering homes, creating communities 1
Homes and Communities Agency

Hale Village, Tottenham

Hale Village in Tottenham was one

of the schemes in London that was
put at risk by the economic downturn.
The HCA struck a deal with the
developer Lee Valley Estates, loaning
£3m towards the completion of the
first phase, in addition to the existing
investment through our affordable
housing programme.

It is one of the first times the HCA has

used its new powers to lend money
to a partner. The housebuilder receives
a cash injection to help with liquidity
on the scheme, at no ultimate cost
to the taxpayer. Importantly, Hale Village
acts as the catalyst for the regeneration
of Tottenham Hale by delivering 1,200
new homes and 7,500 sq m of office,
retail and leisure floorspace. And we
have made a commitment to continue
being flexible and innovative with
our funding in London.

Castleford Footbridge, West Yorkshire

A new footbridge connects communities
on both sides of the River Aire

What we do
This year and next we will invest nearly
£14bn across our programmes, which
indicates the scope, breadth and impact
of our activities. From Decent Homes
to the Private Finance Initiative, from
Gypsies and Travellers to ‘kickstarting’
stalled developments, each programme
is crucial and each is interlinked. They are
more than the sum of their parts. We use
our budgets flexibly. Ultimately our aim is
to help local authorities bring together their
housing and regeneration priorities into
a single, comprehensive plan through our
Single Conversation business model.

2 Delivering homes, creating communities


We do this by addressing four
key themes of activity:
Growth
Enabling the delivery of large scale
developments in strategic locations,
helping local areas achieve their
growth targets and unlocking
stalled schemes.
Affordability
Providing the funding for housing
associations, private developers and
local authorities to build affordable
homes for rent and sale.
Homes and Communities Agency
Renewal We are an important
Working with local authorities and regional
agencies to identify renewal requirements,
voice of delivery in
from rejuvenating failing estates to cleaning government, ensuring
up swathes of brownfield land, removing
the blight of dereliction and stimulating
that our partners’
renewed economic activity. experiences in creating
Sustainability
sustainable places are
Improving quality of life through heard by those that
innovation, enhanced surroundings
and a higher standard of the physical
set the policies.
and social environment.
Delivering homes, creating communities 3
Homes and Communities Agency
New Broughton, Salford
At New Broughton in Salford we have
combined a similar approach to that
intended for our new way of doing
business, the Single Conversation,
with flexibility in our funding.
We have joined forces with Salford City
Council and three other sub-regional
partners to help strengthen agreed
delivery plans for one of the region’s
most deprived communities. A cash
injection of £7m of HCA funding will
4 Delivering homes, creating communities
support nearly 200 new family-sized
affordable homes, and has helped
ensure that the scheme can progress
in the current economic climate.
As well as private sale and affordable
rent, many of the 3,500 new homes
will be available for affordable sale,
reflecting our commitment to help
first-time buyers to get a foot on
the property ladder.
How we do it – Investment and Land
With operational bases in each of the nine
English regions, every county and district
is able to tap into HCA skills and expertise,
our strategic partnerships, our economies
of scale and our buying power. We use
our budget for thousands of new and
affordable homes, for improved community
facilities, and for infrastructure funding
– homes, shops, offices, schools, roads
and hospitals.
Government has pledged to accelerate
the pace of delivering more homes by
increasing investment available to the
HCA and empowering the Agency to work
in more innovative ways, especially with
local authorities. The £1.06bn Kickstart
Housing Delivery Programme, for example,
part of a wider housing stimulus package,
has the potential to unlock thousands
of homes nationally by reviving stalled
housing schemes and at the same time
generate significant local job and
apprenticeship opportunities.
A package of £350m new funding
is the catalyst to restart a council house
building programme by local authorities,
creating up to 4,000 new social homes
for rent over three years. And through
our Public Land Initiative, we aim to
introduce a different approach to housing
delivery that reduces risk by partnering
public landowners with developers and
construction companies to jointly build
new homes.
As a single agency, we are able to
add substantively to the impact of our
programmes. We are the government’s
honest broker of surplus public-sector land.
We buy, clean up, manage and sell land,
and work with local authorities to resolve
complex planning issues helping to speed
up the delivery process for developers,
for the benefit of communities.
We use our budget for thousands of
new and affordable homes, for improved
community facilities, and for forward
funding infrastructure.
 Homes and Communities Agency

How we do it – Affordable Housing We insist on quality – including minimum

Providing much-needed new affordable space standards and high environmental
housing for rent and sale is central to performance – as well as value for public
meeting the needs and aspirations of money. Most importantly the homes
local people in every neighbourhood, have to fit with locally identified needs
in every town, in every county in England. and priorities; they have to be of the right
It is also central to our wider regeneration type, in the right place, for the right people.
work, helping to create places with a mix
of people from all walks of life. Around half
of our entire annual budget as an agency
is allocated directly to housing, creating
around 117,000 new and affordable homes
over the next two years. From major estate
regeneration to small developments in rural
towns and villages, if new affordable
homes are built, they are almost always
funded by the HCA.

Steeple Chase, Redcar, North Yorkshire

Kickstart investment of over £4m will help
create 141 new homes

Key Event, Manchester

Buyers and housing professionals are
brought together at this free public event

Chelsea Flower Show, London

Visitors explore the Key Garden, partly funded
by the HCA through our Places of Change programme

Delivering homes, creating communities 5

Homes and Communities Agency
City Waterside, Stoke-on-Trent
City Waterside in Stoke-on-Trent
involves the full-scale regeneration
of largely disused land around the
historic canal network to the south
of the city centre. The aim is to create
a thriving community with some
1,300 new homes, shops and a
café-style culture that reconnects
the area to the city centre, making
the most of the waterways for
leisure and residential use.
The HCA has invested around £5m
to fund infrastructure, and chairs the
scheme’s steering group to create a
shared vision for the area. Backed by
an agreed investment plan and clear
roles and responsibilities, the approach
at City Waterside has been a forerunner
to our new Single Conversation business
model. For local residents City Waterside
is making a slice of life by the water
available to everyone.
6 Delivering homes, creating communities
How we do it – The Single Conversation
The Single Conversation is our way of doing
business. As it develops it is transforming
the way we handle housing and
regeneration, helping to provide a shared
clarity of vision backed by a single
investment plan for an area. In short,
through the Single Conversation we act
as the link between local authorities, central
government, housing providers and other
delivery agencies to create and maintain
quality places for the benefit of local
communities. The Single Conversation
covers strategy, investment, capacity
and delivery. Our aim is to come to a
shared position on an area’s ambitions
and objectives for housing, growth,
regeneration and renewal.
We back those objectives by agreeing
a broad level of investment, on a rolling
three-year allocation, as well as what
outputs and outcomes are expected.
We are also clear about delivery roles
and responsibilities.
No two conversations are the same.
Different areas have different needs and
the form and intensity of engagement,
and level of investment, differs from
place to place. And nowhere starts
with a completely clean sheet so each
conversation builds on current agreements
and investment plans. Priorities are mutually
shared and agreed, and based on local
ambitions. Funding from a variety of public
and private sources are linked for maximum
impact, allowing local authorities to develop
proposals based on a stable understanding
of how funding decisions will be taken.
The result will tailor investment strategies to
the needs of places, rather than developing
them on a one-size-fits-all basis.
 Homes and Communities Agency

Computer generated image © Barratt Developments plc

Hanham Hall, near Bristol Upton, Northamptonshire

England’s first zero carbon development The Sustainable Urban Drainage system is just one of many eco-friendly features
of this new community

How we do it – Raising the Game Both will strengthen our ability to

At the heart of the HCA are our staff. create affordable, carbon-efficient,
Dedicated, professional, public spirited well-connected sustainable places.
and socially and commercially minded. And through research and best practice
The Agency is an unrivalled source of we strive for the very best way
expertise and specialist knowledge in to deliver housing and regeneration.
the housing and regeneration industry. We build on what works, discard
As an organisation that acts nationally and what doesn’t, and work with the
operates locally, we have strengthened our best in every field to test new ideas.
regional teams by increasing the number And when we’ve done it, we share
of our staff in front-line delivery roles, the outcomes with everyone.
and reducing those at the corporate centre.

Our ATLAS team has expanded to cover We build on what works,

the whole of England, offering planning
expertise for local authorities on processing
discard what doesn’t,
large applications, while the HCA Academy and work with the best HCA Academy
is responsible for developing the skills and
knowledge of those who create and
in every field to test Developing skills and knowledge for the

maintain communities. new ideas. housing and regeneration sector

Delivering homes, creating communities 7

Homes and Communities Agency

Greenwich Peninsula, London

Work underway on the 229-home Peninsula Riverside development

Sycamore Hall, Wensleydale, Yorkshire Rowner Carnival, Gosport, Hampshire

New accommodation and support The local community celebrates progress
for older people on the regeneration of the Rowner Estate

8 Delivering homes, creating communities

 Homes and Communities Agency

Getting in touch Regional Directors For more general information on how we

If you are a local authority, developer, Margaret Allen can help you create thriving communities,
housing association or any organisation East Midlands please visit homesandcommunities.co.uk,
involved in the creation of great places, you 0115 865 6901 call 0300 1234 500 or email
need to speak to us. And we need to speak mail@homesandcommunities.co.uk
to you. Our corporate and regional directors
David Curtis
are happy to discuss opportunities:
Yorkshire and Humber
0113 394 9377

Sir Bob Kerslake David Edwards

Chief Executive South East
020 7881 1638 0300 1234 500

Corporate Directors Terry Fuller

Eamonn Boylan East of England
Deputy Chief Executive and Director 01223 374015
of New Ventures and Partnerships
01925 644710
David Lunts
London
Trevor Beattie 020 7633 3490
Director of Strategy, Policy,
Performance and Research
Deborah McLaughlin
020 7881 1626
North West
01925 644707
Richard Ennis
Director of Finance and Corporate Services
Colin Molton
020 7881 1200
South West
01454 203622
Richard Hill
Director of Investment and Renewal
Pat Ritchie
020 7874 5972
North East
0191 497 7577
Gill Taylor
Director of Skills and Knowledge
Paul Spooner
and Chief Executive HCA Academy
West Midlands
0113 394 9397
0121 234 9915

John Lewis
Chief Executive
Milton Keynes Partnership
01908 353602

Delivering homes, creating communities 9

homesandcommunities.co.uk
mail@homesandcommunities.co.uk
0300 1234 500

HCA London
110 Buckingham Palace Road
London
SW1W 9SA

HCA Warrington
Arpley House
110 Birchwood Boulevard
Birchwood
Warrington
WA3 7QH

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Publication date: November 2009

Publication code: HCA0052